Why to switch existing Medicare Advantage plans?

All standardized Medicare Advantage plans or Medigap plans had been changed on 1st June, 2010. There were dropped 4 plans and to had been included. Why and how it gets complicated and how the existing policy holders were not affected is explained below.

Know the major changes in Medicare Advantage plans from 2010

One significant change noticed in the Medicare Advantage plans was reducing on new plan pricing! This means, from this date onwards, all shoppers of advantage plans can enjoy similar coverage, but at reduced rates, especially if they shopped with another company for their plan. But still there does exist some confusion among those who are trying to shop for advantage plans. What majority of the beneficiaries fail to understand is that company’s name is really meaningless. In case, Plan F is offered by ABC insurance company and same plan offered by another company XYZ, both the plans are likely to have similar features and benefits. It is the price that will still be the only difference that can be found in the plans.

Before June 2010, the ‘Cadillac’ plan was ‘J’ plan, which offered policy holders with preventative benefits and home health care. But now, home healthcare is considered to be standardized Medicare benefit, where each beneficiary can visit their doctor annually once to avail check-ups that is covered under preventative benefits of traditional Medicare. It does matter significantly as most of the J plan policy holders are likely to find that they are now able to save huge amounts of money, simply by switching on to new Medicare Advantage plans. But the other type of problem that they face is non-existence of new J plans, while those having one such plan witnessed higher average rate increase. It did make sense and got echoed across the industry.

Experts do conclude from their vast knowledge and experience that majority of the Medicare beneficiaries in the real sense try to avoid switching to another plan, when already having existing plan. This is because, they are quite skeptical about going into new plans and worried about the money involved, benefits to avail, if the new plan will work for them as assured to be or not are few of the questions that they have in mind. Most people who have taken Medicare tend to have fixed incomes. For similar coverage provided by other plans, they can witness at least $100 monthly savings.